Ticket Price Disparity—A Good Way to Fight Inequality?

Well, we’re going to be diving into that topic and giving an answer at our upcoming Answers for Pastors and Christian Leaders conference (which is open for anyone to attend) at the Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky. The theme this year is “One Race, One Blood: Biblical and Scientific Answers.” And together with Dr. Charles Ware, Dr. Voddie Baucham, Dr. Johnny Hunt, and others, I will be giving a biblical response to the sin of racism. Here’s just a sample of what I’ll be sharing—and it’s something I think the leaders of that festival need to hear!

We can’t fight racism and inequality by dividing the human population into “us” vs. “them.”

Sadly—fueled by an evolutionary heritage*—racism, inequality, and prejudice exists in this nation (and around the world). But we can’t fight racism and inequality by dividing the human population into “us” vs. “them.” What we need is a biblical—not an evolutionary—understanding of history, the human race, and the gospel.

Here’s what I mean. From a biblical (and scientific and genetic) standpoint, we’re all one race—the human race (Acts 17:26). Adam and Eve were the first two people (Genesis 3:20; 1 Corinthians 15:45), and we’ve all descended from them, so we can all trace our ancestry back, through Noah and his family, to Adam and Eve. So, everyone is our relative, our family.

Now, this festival wants to classify people as “people of color” and “non people of color” But it has a problem. We’re all people of color! You see, the main pigment we have in our skin is called melanin. It’s basically a brown pigment, and so that means everyone is a shade of brown. To put it simplistically, because of their genetics, some people only produce small amounts of melanin and therefore have light brown skin (like me); others produce a lot of melanin and therefore have dark brown skin. Others have a skin shade anywhere in between that. We’re not “black” and “white”—we’re shades of brown.

Now, as I mentioned, we’ve all descended from Adam and that means every one of us, no matter what people group or culture we belong to, has the same ultimate problem—sin! We’re all sinners in rebellion against God, deserving of death and on our way to a Christ-less eternity in hell. But that doesn’t have to be our fate! The God-man Jesus Christ, our relative, a descendant of Adam, stepped into history and died on the cross. Through his death, he took the penalty of death that we deserve for us. If we repent and trust in him, we can have forgiveness and new and eternal life. Our biggest and ultimate problem is then solved by the grace and mercy of our Lord!

The answer to racism is the gospel. The gospel solves our biggest problem and brings us into the family of God.

The answer to racism is the gospel. The gospel solves our biggest problem and brings us into the family of God.

In a biblical worldview, there is absolutely no room for racism.

Keith and Kristyn Getty Performing at Answers for Pastors

We hope you can join us for Answers for Pastors and Christian Leaders to learn more about how we as Christians can effectively combat racism with the gospel message. It’s sure to be a wonderful conference and is suitable for everyone—we strongly encourage pastors, leaders, Sunday school teachers, parents, and college and high school students to make plans to attend, south of Cincinnati. A free Ark Encounter and Creation Museum annual pass (to be used as often as you'd like for a full year) is included with your ticket, so it’s a great time to come and see both popular attractions or to make plans to come back again and again.

In addition to incredible, in-depth teaching from eight different presenters, world-renown hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty will be joining us for a special performance just for the conference attendees (they will be performing in a separately ticketed concert at the Ark Encounter as well). It’s an opportunity you won’t want to miss to worship with the singers of the iconic modern hymn “In Christ Alone” and so many others. Watch Kristyn sing that well-known hymn on YouTube.

Register for this special conference today at AnswersforPastors.org.

And be sure to book your rooms at our sponsoring hotels for special rates:

• Home2 Suites by Hilton Georgetown
• Holiday Inn Express Richwood
• Tru by Hilton Cincinnati Airport South Florence

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.

*Even famed evolutionist Dr. Stephen Jay Gould acknowledged, “Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory” (Ontogeny and Phylogeny, 1977).